Three days later, the Voltar caught up with the Firebrand Liberation Fleet. General Karl was wary of the Rainbow Mage, but eventually conceded that a brief meeting like this wouldn’t much affect our itinerary. The fleet would have to slow to match the Voltar’s maximum speed, but only for less than an hour. We’d be stopping for maintenance after the next system liberation, and I offered to ask the Rainbow Mage to wait for that, but Karl shot down the suggestion. Probably just as well, too.

This time, I entered the Rainbow Mage’s ship through special ship-to-ship teleportation. The Firebrand didn’t have that capability, so it was really the Voltar yanking me off of it and that would yank me back onto it later.

He met me directly when I arrived instead of making me wait, as well. "So much for not meeting again, hmm? When we first bumped into each other, you had only cleared the Tutorial on High difficulty, and you had little ambition save for spending the rest of your life with your Mewi. Just look at you now—a real hero of justice."

There was a definite sneer attached to that last sentence. He began leading me out of where I'd arrived and along a corridor. "I still have little ambition beyond spending the rest of my life with him—and maybe some friends I've made along the way. I'm simply being more proactive about it. And I've said over and over—"

"That you have never considered yourself a hero of justice," said the Rainbow Mage, dismissively, "yes, yes, I've heard, or at least heard of, at least one such interview. You claim that becoming a member of the alliance team 'just sort of happened.'

Personally, I think you're kidding yourself. Sure, you didn't set out to save lives or restore peace, but when the Federation tried to make you into that, you let them. For that greater good you let them impose their Liberation Fleet plan on you. And you're happy about it. Almost smug, I'd say, at being the first to restore a Sanctuary. You've behaved a great deal like a hero of justice.

Me, I don't let things happen to me, or my team. I make things happen to others before they can happen to us. But, as you also seem to believe in going by what you said in your recording, I take the view that such things are to each their own. I do have to wonder how long you'll live, though."

I grimaced. I hated that phrase, "for the greater good." Nine times out of ten, it was used by self-serving asshats with some kind of political power who really meant, "for the greater good OF ME." And the tenth time, it was used by people who were about to make some kind of painful sacrifice that would ease the pain of others for a time, but would ultimately be meaningless in terms of actually solving anything that led to such things happening in the first place.

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There is no greater good, only lesser evil. Sure, I had gone along with the Federation making me into one of their so-called heroes, but I didn't consider that an evil being done to me. Restoring the safe zones in Area 1 was a rather more definitive result than someone out to "change the world" or whatever usually got.

Not long after that, we were both seated in an office-like room, much like last time. A pitcher of what looked like some kind of fruit juice was already waiting there. I scanned it, discovering it had some kind of property to promote clarity of mind.

"I already know most of the details of your own experience with the Syndicate," said the Rainbow Mage, "so I'll open with a question."

"From what you've found, what do you think the Syndicate is after? Why do you think the Sanctuaries had to fall?"

"As you've surmised, I do have a theory...Mewi actually thought of it, but it made sense to me. We think that destroying the Federation is just a smokescreen. We have no idea why, but we think their objective was simply to get more people to climb the Tower instead of staying in Area 1 all their lives."

Otto clapped his hands together, making a sharp noise. "Well done getting that far. Mewi was the one who first realized it, though? Clearly you're not the only one on the alliance team with hidden depths.

Speaking of which, how is dear Anna doing?" Now the Rainbow Mage was sneering again. "I had the chance to make her my teammate once, but I don't recruit past enemies."

I raised my eyebrows. "All things considered, she's doing remarkably well." I kept my tone even, yet sardonic. "Although she hadn't mentioned that you could have recruited her. I'm happy for your loss to be my gain, in her case. She's been an excellent and valuable teammate."

Unnervingly, the Rainbow Mage smiled. “You’re not so easy to manipulate. Good. Assuming your ambitions do include not becoming a puppet of the Syndicate, you may have a chance.”

“You’re not the first to try to provoke me,” I said. To further conceal how much he really had annoyed me, I choked back the words I’d wanted to continue with, “and not even the best at it.” Instead I said, “so is there anything you do want me to tell you about, or?”

“Not really. I wanted to see if you might be worth having as an ally. That, and I wondered if you had come to the same conclusion as me about them. The fact that you did increases the chance of that angle being worth pursuing.

As to why they apparently want to encourage emigration further up the Tower, even my own theories so far are too tentative and vague to share. There is something I can tell you, though. I’ve seen certain indications myself that since the fall of the Sanctuaries, a schism has begun in the organization.

There were those among them, I believe, who expected the Federation to do much more poorly than they have. Prior to your successfully restoring a Sanctuary, they were likely held back from acting against the liberation fleets, but it would be strange if they were not much more likely to do so now.

The ones waiting in the remaining Sanctuaries to test those who would restore them aren’t the only threat from them.”

“Which means,” I said, “it’s also too early to think we won’t encounter assassins from these people. I’ll try to impress it upon the others to be careful.”